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COLOR-BLIND COLORIST – A NAVY PAINTER AIRS HIS GREIVANCES

Dear YANK:

Back in 1942 the Regular Navy refused my enlistment in aviation mechanics because I’m color-blind but I was physically fit for the Seabees. After two years I made painter third class and they put me to mixing colors. I’ve held the rate a year in July with never a complaint about colors not matching. What gripes me is that the Navy wouldn’t let me work in a carrier because I was color-blind but my eyes are good enough to decorate officers’ clubs, ect. What use would I have for color in the hold of a carrier?

—C.E. Miller PTR3c, Saipan

Insignia of the Navy Construction Battalions the “Seabees”.

US Navy Seabees at work. The Seabees constructed runways, roadways, piers, dredged harbors and completed other very important work for the war effort.